Growing in Grace- Links 10/27

“It is, in short, a film about how the gospel espoused by so many so-called Christians is not good news at all. This gospel is not drawn from the Bible but from the worldly desire for a long, comfortable, and affluential life.”

“But, one day, maybe ten years from now or thirty, you’ll look back at the gritty pressing forward you did during this season, and you’ll see how the Lord cultivated perseverance when you couldn’t see it. Keep pressing forward doing what you know and take confidence in the unseen work of God.”

“Envy seethes over those who are rejoicing and exults over those who are weeping. There is a great German word for this, Schadenfreude, which literally means, ‘harm-joy.’ It’s when someone else’s harm brings you joy.”

“Sanctification is also like this and sometimes we get out of practice there too. I forget who I’m supposed to look like (Christ) and stop submitting myself to the whittling away process of sanctification. I react rather than respond. I succumb rather than submit. I falter rather than have faith. And then one day I wake up and realize my muscles have atrophied and responding in right action feels more difficult than before.”

“Leaving a local church in an ungodly way is not without pain. People have poured into the individual; they’ve prayed for them; they’ve walked with them; they’ve exhausted themselves for them, and yet the individual leaves as if the church was nothing more than one of many hot dog stands at the county carnival.”